FORUM 2018
Entr'arts / Between the Arts May 17-20, 2018 – Victoriaville and Montreal, Quebec, Canada
In collaboration with the Festival International de Musique Actuelle à Victoriaville (FIMAV), the Department of Music at Concordia University's Faculty of Fine Arts, Groupe Le Vivier, the Goethe- Institut Montreal and Université de Montréal.
CNMN would like to thank the sponsors and collaborators for FORUM 2018 :
CARREFOUR DES MUSIQUES NOUVELLES
FORUM 2018 - WELCOME Welcome!
Welcome to CNMN’s 8th biennial forum, a special edition held in Victoriaville and Montreal. Previous forums have brought the community together to discuss all kinds of issues critical to creative music practices: mar- keting and communication, audience development, challenges of geography, Canadian music realities, di- versity, new music and the mainstream. FORUM 2018: Entr’arts is a response to another important devel- opment of recent years – the explosion of work that draws from different art forms, different forms of hu- man endeavour, and different cultural perspectives. Questions around this practice (which is actually not new, if one considers opera, any kind of movement and music, images and music) cut to the heart of what it means to create: how we decide which means to use to convey an artistic impulse; why we move away from solitary specialization in order to embrace other artistic disciplines; alternatively, when and how we col- laborate with artists of other disciplines – indeed, with people in fields outside the traditional “art” disci- plines. With all the creative people gathered here to ponder these and other questions, we are confident that Entr’arts will bring new understanding and suggest new possibilities. In offering this exciting platform for discussion, discovery and networking, CNMN is pleased to have the partnership of le Festival international de musiques actuelle a Victoriaville, Concordia University, the Cana- dian Section of the ISCM, and Le Vivier and CARTEL, whose international members we warmly welcome to our gathering. We thank all the many individuals of these organizations for their ideas and the spirit of collaboration they have brought to our joint endeavour. CNMN gratefully acknowledges our general operating funders: The Canada Council for the Arts and the SOCAN Foundation. And specifically for FORUM 2018, the critical funding of: FACTOR, the Canadian Section of the ISCM and the ISCM’s Member’s Fund for bringing guests from Germany and Finland, and the Goethe Institute for funding of keynote speaker Heiner Goebbels. We would also like to acknowledge the contribu- tion of Concordia University in their collaboration and use of their spaces, especially the Music Department, as well as the contribution in equipment by the Université de Montréal. But when it comes to new practices of collaboration, nothing exceeds the importance of developing a new relationship between mainstream society–the inheritor of the original European settlements –and Indige- nous inhabitants of this upper half of Turtle Island. Indigenous representation at CNMN events is a start. We also acknowledge the peoples of the lands on which we are holding this forum: Victoriaville is on the unceded Haudenosauneega (St Lauwrence Iroquois), Wabanaki Confederacy and Abenaki territories. Mon- treal is the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) people. The island called “Montreal” is known as Tiotia:ke in the language of the Kanien’kehá:ka, and it has historically been a meeting place for other Indigenous nations.
Jennifer Waring
President, CNMN
1 FORUM 2018 - PRACTICAL INFORMATION Practical Information
More information online: www.newmusicnetwork.ca/en/forum/forum-2018
ACCESS Please pick up your nametag in person at one of the registration desks and keep it with you. It will act as your pass to all FORUM activities, except FIMAV concerts.
LOCATIONS Le Nouvel Hotel et Spa (Montreal) (514) 931-8841 1740 René-Lévesque Blvd W, Montreal, QC H3H 1R3 • pickup point for bus travel to Victoriaville and recommended hotel for FORUM 2018
Hotel Le Victorin (Victoriaville) (877) 845-5344 19 Boulevard Arthabaska Est,Victoriaville, QC G6T 0S4 • Main location of FORUM 2018 Victoriaville and pickup point for bus travel Victoriaville-Montreal • Regisration desk located in the foyer
FIMAV venues (Victoriaville) • Carré 150 • Colisée Desjardins • St-Christophe-d'Arthabaska Church
Concordia University (Montreal) • Main location of FORUM 2018 Montreal J.A. De Seve Theatre 1400 Boulevard de Maisonneuve O, Montréal, QC H3G 1M8 • Registration desk located in the foyer
Music Department 1450 Guy St. MB Building, 8th floor, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3H 0A1
Black Box Dance Studio 1450 Guy St. MB Building, 7th floor – MB 7.265, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3H 0A1
MGN Building GN-M-100 Entrance: 1175 Rue Saint Mathieu, Montréal, QC H3H 2P7
2 FORUM 2018 - PRACTICAL INFORMATION
TRANSPORTATION AND PARKING
Bus transport Montreal–Victoriaville–Montreal • Montreal to Victoriaville: Departs from Le Nouvel Hotel and Spa at 9:30 am, Thursday, May 17 • Victoriaville to Montreal: Departs from Hotel Le Victorin at 9:30 am, Saturday, May 19
Victoriaville Shuttles will take FORUM 2018 participants from Hotel Le Victorin to the city centre/FIMAV venues and back at the following times: Thursday, May 17 • 5:30 pm Hôtel Le Victorin to Victoriaville town centre • 11:30 pm Colisée Desjardins (FIMAV venue) to Hôtel Le Victorin • 1:30 am Colisée Desjardins (FIMAV venue) to Hôtel Le Victorin
Friday, May 18 • 7:15 pm Hôtel Le Victorin to St-Christophe-d'Arthabaska Church (FIMAV venue) • 9:15 pm St-Christophe-d'Arthabaska Church to Colisée Desjardins (FIMAV venues) • 11:30 pm Colisée Desjardins (FIMAV venue) to Hôtel Le Victorin • 1:30 am Colisée Desjardins (FIMAV venue) to Hôtel Le Victorin For taxi service in Victoriaville, call (819) 752-2222
Parking is available at Hotel Le Victorin
Montreal FORUM venues are within easy walking distance of the hotel (see map). The metro is the best way to get around Montreal. The closest metro station to Concordia is Guy-Concordia, on the green line. For further information visit www.stm.info/en You can also rent Bixi (bike share) bicycles with a credit card at many locations on the street. For further infomation visit https://montreal.bixi.com/en Parkade parking is available at Concordia.
WIFI At Hôtel Le Victorin, there is an open network called Le Victorin. At Concordia, please use the following (case sensitive) login:
User: WIRE0325 Password: Music18
For information on how to configure your device for wireless use at Concordia, please select the option from the documentation section on this page that best matches the device you are using http://www.concordia.ca/it/services/concordia-wireless-network.html
3 FORUM 2018 - PRACTICAL INFORMATION FOOD AND DRINKS
Victoriaville Breakfast is provided with your hotel reservation. Lunches and the FORUM dinner on Friday, May 17th are included in your FORUM registration. Each participant will receive two drink coupons. There will be a number of complimentary coffee breaks – please refer to the schedule. Participants are responsible for dinner on Thursday, May 17th (transportation will be provided to the cen- tre of town where there are plenty of options).
Montreal Participants are responsible for lunch and dinner on Saturday, May 19th and breakfast on Sunday, May 20th. There are many options right around the venues at Concordia University and the Nouvel Hotel and Spa. There will be a number of coffee breaks – please refer to the schedule.
STAFF
Production Manager: Terri Hron Technical Director: Joseph Thibodeau Production Assistant: Ananda Suddath Administrative Assistant: Rosabel Choi Documentation: Philip Fortin Lighting Technician: Nien Tzu Weng Translation: Terri Hron & Marie Eve Loyez
Concordia liaison: Mark Corwin (Chair, Music Department) FIMAV liaisons: Michel Levasseur & Vivianne Carrier
Language Facilitators: Sandeep Bhagwati, Linda Bouchard, Tim Brady, Louise Campbell, Gabriel Dharmoo, Terri Hron
FORUM 2018 Steering Committee: Tim Brady, Juliet Palmer, Jennifer Waring, Sandeep Bhagwati, Pierrette Gingras
4 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL THURSDAY MAY 17 Thursday, May 17th
9:30 AM Le Nouvel Hotel and Spa Bus to Victoriaville 12:30 PM Hotel Le Victorin hotel check-in & FORUM registration 1:00 PM Dining Room Networking Lunch 2:00 PM Salle Arthabaska Welcome (Jennifer Waring, Juliet Palmer & Terri Hron) Discussion #1: WHY Sandeep Bhagwati Anne Goldenberg 2:15 PM Salle Arthabaska Elke Moltrecht William Robinson Isabella Stefanescu Moderator: Ruth Howard Portraits & Presentations #1
Victoria C Luke Nickel Ona Kamu Marcelle Hudon Discussion #2: ENSEMBLE 3:15 PM Linda Bouchard Guillaume Campion Victoria D Guillaume Côté L’Orchestre des hommes orchestres Patrick Saint-Denis Moderator: Sandeep Bhagwati
4:10 PM Hall Victoria Café Networking
Portraits & Presentations #2
4:30 PM Salle Arthabaska Gabriel Dharmoo Evelin Ramon Lou Sheppard 5:30 PM Hotel Le Victorin Bus to centre, dinner (not included) 6:45 PM Carré 150 FIMAV Opening Cocktail 8:00 PM Colisée Desjardins FIMAV Concert 1 10:00 PM Colisée Desjardins FIMAV Concert 2 11:30 PM Colisée Desjardins Bus to Hôtel Le Victorin 12:00 AM Colisée Desjardins FIMAV Concert 3 (optional - not included in Hotel package) 1:30 AM Colisée Desjardins Bus to Hôtel Le Victorin
5 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL THURSDAY MAY 17 2:15 DISCUSSION #1: WHY ? What have we come together to discuss for four days, and why is it important? To open FORUM 2018, a discussion of interdisciplinarity and music from varied sociological, historical, cultural, political, technological, aesthetic and practical perspectives. Anne Goldenberg Elke Moltrecht (Academy of the Arts of the World) William Robinson Isabella Stefanescu (Inter Arts Martix) Moderator: Ruth Howard
3:15 PORTRAITS AND PRESENTATIONS #1
Luke Nickel Integrated Arts: Strength in Numbers New music can often feel like an isolated—and isolating—field. Many of us have had the experience as programmers, composers, and musicians of a small group of excellent performers playing to an audience of five people. Part of the power of inter-arts presentation is that allows for us to engage with multiple different communities in one event. In this talk, I will discuss reasons a music programmer may want to engage with inter-arts presentation. Then, I will discuss the reality facing many young artists working across boundaries (especially as they exit institutions and begin their own professional practices). Finally, I will describe an upcoming Cluster project that encapsulates the organization’s approach to inter-arts development and programming.
Ona Kamu Curiosity, momentum, vulnerability. In front of a change I am uncertain. I do not hesitate. I don’t want to hide my vulnerability. I don’t want to hide my strength either. Intuition. Silence. Pause. Illogicality. Motion. Transparency. Unaffected. I try to be. At present.
Marcelle Hudon For thousands of years, the puppet has been present in all cultures in various forms. It’s a powerful meta- phoric tool that allows for the expression of abstract concepts, political ideals, religious questions and dream universes. Nevertheless, justifying its relevance in the 21st century is not an easy thing. For more than 30 years, Marcelle Hudon has linked new music with the puppet and its derivatives–shadow theatre and object theater–to evoke the meandering spirit (memory, fantasy, dreams). For her, puppet and sound creation have in common their intention to “make matter speak.”
6 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL THURSDAY MAY 17 3:15 DISCUSSION #2 : ENSEMBLE What are the essentials of a practice between the arts? What leads to success and how to build meaningful and fruitful works together? A discussion of the practical aspects of programming and performing interdisciplinary and collectively created works. Linda Bouchard Guillaume Campion Guillaume Côté L’Orchestre des hommes orchestres Patrick Saint-Denis Moderator: Sandeep Bhagwati
4:30 PORTRAITS AND PRESENTATIONS #2
Gabriel Dharmoo Gabriel Dharmoo will present artistic projects that involve him as a composer-performer, vocalist and interdisciplinary artist (Anthropologies imaginaires, À chaque ventre son monstre). Emphasis will be placed on the use of human voice, imaginary folklore, the diversification of audiences/collaborators and the role of laughter in his work.
Evelin Ramon The main subject of this performance-demonstration is the integration of improvisation within a process of interdisciplinary creation that touches on musical and theatrical performance. How to interact with electronics when considering the manipulation of controllers as an extension of stag- ing? How to deal with the coexistence of improvised sonic gestures and staged/theatrical ones? At present, I am working on interdisciplinary projects that touch on both creation and musical and theat- rical performance. These two worlds form a vital alliance that lead me to want to push the limits of staged performance in my artistic work.
Lou Sheppard Lou Sheppard’s audio and performance based practice is focused on translation, particularly translations between meaning systems that do not align in conventional ways. Starting from a range of source materi- als (diagnostic criteria, environmental data, field recordings) they engage in rigorous processes of trans- lation, resulting in musical compositions, choreographies, and performance. These interpretations inter- rogate the meaning of data and point to alternative epistemologies—disrupting their empirical meanings. In this presentation Sheppard will share some of their recent audio based work, including Requiem for the Polar Regions, an automated program that generates musical compositions based on the perimeter and concentration of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic.
5:30 BUS TO VICTORIAVILLE CENTRE & FIMAV VENUES
7 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL FRIDAY MAY 18
Friday, May 18th 8:30 AM outside Hotel Le Victorin Activity: New Hermitage Soundwalk 9:30 AM Workshop: Mapping Community Music Across Canada Salle Arthabaska 10:00 AM Keynote: Heiner Goebbels 11:00 AM Hall Victoria Café Networking Portraits & Presentations #3 Patrick Saint-Denis Victoria C L'Orchestre d'hommes orchestres William Robinson Matthias Engler 11:30 AM Portraits & Presentations #4 Christopher Willes Victoria D Inter Arts Matrix - Isabella Stefanescu Niilo Tarnanen Guillaume Côté/Guillaume Campion 1:00 AM Dining Hall Networking Lunch Portraits & Presentations #5 Victoria C Jumblies Theatre - Ruth Howard Anne Goldenberg Andrew Balfour 2:00 PM Portraits & Presentations #6 Victoria D Kiran Bhumber/JP Carter Academy of the Arts of the World - Elke Moltrecht Megumi Masaki
Discussion #3: CULTURES Andrew Balfour Gabriel Dharmoo 3:00 PM Salle Arthabaska Cléo Palacio-Quintin Lou Sheppard Lan Tung Moderator: Jerry Pergolesi 3:50 PM Hall Victoria Café Networking Discussion #4: BETWEEN THE ARTS, BETWEEN PEOPLE Peter Burton David Dacks François Paris 4:10 PM Salle Arthabaska Elke Moltrecht Lauren Pratt Thørbjørn Thonder Hansen Du Yun Moderator: Pierrette Gingras
8 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL FRIDAY MAY 18
5:30 PM Hall Victoria FORUM Dinner 7:15 PM Hôtel Le Victorin Bus to FIMAV venue
8:00 PM St-Christophe- FIMAV Concert 1 9:15 PM d'Arthabaska Church Bus to Concert 2 10:00 PM FIMAV Concert 2 11:30 PM Bus to Hôtel Le Victorin Colisée Desjardins 12:00 AM FIMAV Concert 3 (optional - not included in Hotel package) 1:30 AM Bus to Hôtel Le Victorin
8:30 SOUNDWALK: NEW HERMITAGE New Hermitage will be presenting a silent sound walk in the area surrounding the FORUM and with stops for three music interludes. Every piece will begin with listening in space before patiently and deliberately continuing on to material that develops from the environmental timbres around the group. Through our per- formance we hope to blur the lines between sound meditation, concert, and everyday life. With mobilization, dissolution, and reuniting of the ensemble, this format also questions the divide between performer and au- dience. Our presentation is a way of sharing the fundamental mindfulness practice that fuels our musical creation.
9:00 WORKSHOP: MAPPING COMMUNITY MUSIC ACROSS CANADA Community Music, musics made with and by members of the public, is a grassroots movement gaining mo- mentum around the world. Practitioners develop strategies unique to their own interests and talents that respond best to people with whom they are working, producing a multiplicity of techniques and approaches. To fully understand current Community Music practices throughout the country, we seek to know what is going on – with whom, what and how Community Music is being made. This introduction and workshop proposes a mapping exercise and subsequent knowledge exchange activity to gain an understanding of cur- rent community.
10:15 CONFÉRENCE D'HONNEUR : HEINER GOEBBELS "Making Music with the Means of Stage" On Polyphonic Structures in Music Theatre. German composer and director Heiner Goebbels is at the forefront of innovation in contemporary music and theatre. Winner of the prestigious international Ibsen Award, Goebbels is acclaimed as a “true innovator” and “one of the great creative personalities of today”. His extraordinary body of work ranges from large scale opera, orchestral and concert works to intimate installations and radioworks. His ground-breaking orches- tral song cycle Surrogate Cities is one of the world's most performed contemporary music theatre works with performances in 5 countries this coming season. Goebbels holds the Georg Büchner Chair at the interdisci- plinary research centre ZMI, Centre for Media and Interactivity, at Justus Liebig University Gießen.
9 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL FRIDAY MAY 18
11:40 PORTRAITS & PRESENTATIONS #3
Patrick Saint-Denis I will present various projects in digital musical instrument design and interactive scenography where ro- botics and artificial intelligence play a leading role. We are becoming more and more familiar with post- anthopocentric performance and several artists are looking to give various forms of agency to the technolo- gies they use on stage. It is not enough now to seek to integrate technologies with traditional practices, it is also necessary to redefine our practices and rituals according to the objects and machines with which we share creation.
L'Orchestre d'hommes orchestres Always ready to look at the thing behind the thing and to pull the invisible thread, the OHDO and its collabo- rators borrow from several languages to find, from one project to the next, what will best suit their purposes. This results in free, open, undisciplined and deliberately chaotic propositions that are as much calls to re- sourcefulness as to intelligence. A small overview of a multidimensional practice.
William Robinson This presentation discusses three site–specific sound–centred works I created in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The works, Parchetypes (2011) at Point Pleasant Park, Liberation Snare (2014) at the Halifax Citadel, and Brutalist Song II (2016) at Killam Memorial Library, form musical systems to interpret, engage and negotiate each site’s material and ephemeral stories. I reflect on how these projects further my own understanding of—and relationship to—the complex landscapes and legacies of Halifax’s civic environment.
Matthias Engler Ensemble Adapter is a German-Icelandic ensemble for contemporary music based in Berlin. The core of the group consists of a quartet with flute, clarinet, harp and percussion. Together with selected guest instrumen- talists this core grows into chamber music settings with up to 8 players. On international concert tours and in the studio Adapter plays world premieres and other selected works of the recent past. The ensemble also produces and co-produces larger interdisciplinary projects and is inter- ested in exploring and testing the limits of trans-medial approaches in various settings. In workshops Adapter transfers knowledge of how to write, study and perform contemporary music to composers, instru- mentalist and creatives worldwide. Adapter stays in touch with the latest developments in the differing scenes of contemporary creation - maintaining a progressive, authentic and powerful style.
11:40 PORTRAITS & PRESENTATIONS #4
Christopher Willes Christopher will speak about several recent projects which explore relationships between public space, live performance, and the performativity of audio archives. In particular, he will talk about his activities as a 2017 resident artist at the Toronto Public Library (Scarborough Civic Center Branch), working with local teenagers on a site-specific experimental music project. He will also speak about his activities as part of the Toronto based performing arts collective Public Recordings, with whom he is restaging an orchestral work by Pauline Oliveros, in collaboration with a large ensemble predominantly comprised of non-professional musicians.
10 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL FRIDAY MAY 18
Inter Arts Matrix - Isabella Stefanescu In interdisciplinary work we must be willing to be beginners, because that’s what we become when we cross disciplines. An amateur possesses humility - beginner’s mind - and a certain privileged point of view from slightly outside of a discipline. The innocence and ignorance of a beginner are fragile: you cannot un-know something. In over a decade of interdisciplinary creation at Inter Arts Matrix, beginner’s mind and first im- pressions have been cultivated and protected, allowing us to rush into the places where pros feared to tread.
Niilo Tarnanen Niilo Tarnanen’s presentation asks whether a more collegial attitude towards compositional practices might lead to a more sustainable ethics in music-making at large. He illustrates the problem with various case ex- amples of recent collective projects he’s been involved. Be it amongst several composers, between a com- poser and other musicians, or in interdisciplinary teams, Tarnanen speculates upon compromise as a virtue and negotiation as an opportunity, as opposed to the traditional idea of the composer as a dictator and the composition as a command.
Guillaume Côté/Guillaume Campion Archipel is a multi-platform work, mid-way between electroacoustic music and sonic documentary, that ex- plores access to the water and the Saint-Laurence seaway in the Montreal archipelago. While many projects to improve this access have been announced, the composers Guillaume Campion and Guillaume Côté take on this issue with three complementary platforms. The origin of the project is a 29-minute sonic documentary (Archipel, 2016), which brings together field re- cordings, sound synthesis and interview excerpts. Faced with the abundance of information and the ubiquity of the subject in the news, the composition of this work quickly sparked the development of a website, a dynamic platform where the seven movements of the original documentary come together with new snip- pets updated regularly. Summer of 2018 will see the launch of a mobile application that will offer an aug- mented sonic reality on the shore of the Montreal shoreline.
2:00 PORTRAITS & PRESENTATIONS #5
Jumblies Theatre - Ruth Howard Ruth will talk about and share samples from recent projects which bring together professional composers, musicians and music organizations with interdisciplinary and community-engaged arts practices and partic- ipants from a wide spectrum of abilities. She will touch on the challenges, negotiations, benefits and creative pleasures of these partnerships from varied perspectives. Projects she will refer to include Quarry composed by Juliet Palmer, Voices Dangle Like Bells by Jason Doell (with Continuum Contemporary Music), Endings by Lieke van de Voort (with Soundstreams), workshops (Composing Community) with the Canadian Music Cen- tre and Toronto Creative Music Lab, and some other recent ventures.
Goldjian: EeRteT (Earthian encounter, Rencontres terrestres, encuentros Terrestres) EeRteT is a series of music, movie and dance performances in telepresence, involving dancers, musicians, videast scattered on several continents. It is also a dance with the earth. I will either show you the movie of a past experience, or invite you to a new one. Here is the invitation: We belong to the same planet. We live on the solid part of the globe in cohabitation with millions of minerals, organisms, animals and plants. We con- nect with the mounds, the wounds, the telluric movements, the choreographies of territories. We listen to their calls, their songs, their reorganizations. We care about what humans are doing and neglecting on this earth.
11 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL FRIDAY MAY 18
Andrew Balfour I will present my experiences of traveling up north the past 8 years doing outreach with children in remote communities. The vital importance of all artists in the southern part of of the border of Canada, to tie their artistic practices to sharing with these vulnerable and important communities, that have potentially so many seeds that can be nourished by the country’s artistic community, be they Indigenous or not. For the past 20 years, Camerata Nova, a fusion based early music ensemble, has explored the possibilities and challenging aspects of collaborating, sharing, and listening to our regional Indigenous community. Partly as my own jour- ney, as having Cree blood, as a "Sixties Scooper," and a so-called classical musician, but also as a journey as making music and art with different approaches to music. Different communities, different approaches in new cultural mosaics, which is vital to our survival in all artist disciplines in our country and contemporary landscape.
2:00 PORTRAITS & PRESENTATIONS #6
Kiran Bhumber/JP Carter: Raula This performance/demonstration includes a work for trumpet with electronics and the Responsive User Body Suit (RUBS). RUBS is a tactile instrument worn by a performer developed by Kiran Bhumber and Bob Pritchard. Bhumber and Carter explore the narrative of coming to life; awakening possible sonic and visual worlds. This is achieved by inhabiting spaces which blur perceptions between the human/machine, uncon- scious/conscious and intangible/tangible. This will proceed with a short talk discussing the process behind interdisciplinary collaboration between traditional and newly invented instruments.
Academy of the Arts of the World - Elke Moltrecht Inter-arts practices can be seen as a key for widening the dimension and the focus of new music in the direc- tion of relevant global, cosmopolitan and also political questions, since new music communities are less po- litical than other art fields and disciplines. Introducing the work of the Academy of the Arts of the World, I will explain interdisciplinarity’s potential towards these directions, as well as how they relate to trans- or intercultural issues. This subject includes considering changing structures in cultural fields: questions around commissioned works, staffing, and the cultural backgrounds of directors of institutions and festivals.
Megumi Masaki Performing with interactive computer music and interactive visuals that can sound and look different each time creates an array of possibilities for the performer and composer/visual artist/computer to respond to each other in real time. Advances in computer technology in recent decades have impacted the diversity of ways performers can interact with live electronics and visuals, and allow for a greater dynamic interaction between the pianist and composer in all stages of the development, creation, rehearsals and performances. This has led to a proliferation of composers that create works for piano and interactive computer music, and collaborations of performers, composers and visual artists creating interactive multimedia works. Megumi Masaki will perform and present the software and hardware environment of a diverse range of multimedia works, and discuss strategies and challenges of working with interactive multimedia in live performance.
12 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL FRIDAY MAY 18
3:00 DISCUSSION #3: CULTURES Are inter-arts practices particularly suited to cross-cultural dialogue, and what kind of difficulties do they set up? A discussion about crossing and celebrating cutures and disciplines. Andrew Balfour Gabriel Dharmoo Cléo Palacio-Quintin Lou Sheppard Lan Tung Moderator: Jerry Pergolesi
4:10 DISCUSSION #4: BETWEEN THE ARTS, BETWEEN PEOPLE 7 curators from Europe, Canada and the United States explain the importance they place on interdisciplinarity, multiculturalism and community and cultural integration in their programming. This vast subject is approached in a practical manner, with each presenter giving specific examples of what they are doing, why they are doing it and what results ensue. Peter Burton David Dacks François Paris Elke Moltrecht Lauren Pratt Thørbjørn Thonder Hansen Du Yun Moderator: Pierrette Gingras
5:30 FORUM 2018 CATERED HAPPY HOUR
7:15 BUS TO FIMAV VENUES
13 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL SATURDAY MAY 19
Saturday, May 19th 9:30 AM Hotel Le Victorin Bus to Montreal 12:00 PM Le Nouvel Hotel and Spa hotel check-in, lunch (not included) 1:30 PM De Seve Theatre Foyer Meetings with funders (sign-up sheets at registration desk) 2:00 PM De Seve Theatre Keynote: Isabelle van Grimde
3:00 PM MB 8th Floor Common Area Café Networking Portraits & Presentations #7
MB 8th Floor 101 Lan Tung Roozbeh Tabandeh Linda Bouchard Discussion #5: SOLO 3:30 PM Marcelle Hudon Ona Kamu MB 8th Floor 135 Megumi Masaki Jacques Poulin-Denis Moderator: Juliet Palmer
4:20 PM MB 8th Floor Common Area Café Networking
Portraits & Presentations #8 Contemporary Indigenous Scene - Émilie Monnet 4:45 PM De Seve Theatre Katelyn Clark Jacques Poulin-Denis Mykalle Bielinski MB 8th Floor Common Area Meetings with presenters (sign-up sheets at registration desk) 6:00 PM dinner (not included) Student Interarts Concert Alexis Langevin-Tétrault 8:00 PM MB 7.265 Dance Black Box Jullian Hoff & Charlotte Layec Felix Del Tredici Charlotte Layec, Pierre-Luc Lecours & Myriam Boucher 10:00 PM TBA Post-concert Networking
2:00 KEYNOTE: ISABELLE VAN GRIMDE My artistic practice transformed by transdisciplinarity Prize-winning Montreal-based choreographer, researcher and interdisciplinary collaborator, Isabelle Van Grimde will present a keynote in Montreal. Her work is characterized by the quality of dialogue between the musical and dance elements, which often integrate many new technologies. She regularly takes her work beyond the concert stage into galleries, public spaces and on the web.
14 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL SATURDAY MAY 19
3:30 PORTRAITS & PRESENTATIONS #7
Lan Tung Arrived from Taiwan in 1994, Lan Tung has worked in many cross-cultural projects as a musician, producer, composer, and collaborator. She is best known as the artistic director of the JUNO nominated Orchid Ensem- ble, which combines Chinese and Western instruments to perform new works. In 2013, she initiated the Sound of Dragon Music Festival, the only professional festival in Canada celebrating music inspired by Chi- nese roots. The festival promotes creativity and innovation in imaginative new projects, utilizing unusual cross-cultural instrumentations. By presenting artists from different ethnicities, nationalities, and musical genres, Sound of Dragon re-defines “Chinese music” and reflects Vancouver’s growing multicultural environ- ment, representing a highly creative music scene.
Roozbeh Tabandeh Soundscapes in the mist is an orchestral piece and at the same time a research about the musical language of bells. In this talk, the composer will present his research about the history and the utilization of bells in var- ious musical and non-musical contexts and especially the particular way that shepherds use bells to locate their herd; in which bells act as a tool to make a one to one correspondence between sound and space and create a vivid sonic image. The talk will focus on a compositional journey that aimed to define a musical language to facilitate a meaningful conversation between bells and the orchestra.
Linda Bouchard Bouchard will discuss why and how she was compelled to create multimedia works after a career in concert music and will present short excerpts of her two most recent projects: All Caps No Space and Identity Theft. Using graphical scores, stock and prerecorded material, and live video, both works have political through- lines while inhabiting a theatrical space that is visceral and poetic. Bouchard will also share how the profound collaborative aspects of these works invited a different exploration of space, time, language and a new rela- tionship with the audience.
3:30 DISCUSSION #5: SOLO In a culture that advocates increasing specialization, how to flourish as an artist between disciplines that require such multiple skills and knowledge? A discussion with a range of independent and polyvalent artists. Marcelle Hudon Ona Kamu Megumi Masaki Jacques Poulin-Denis Moderator: Juliet Palmer
15 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL SATURDAY MAY 19
4:45 PORTRAITS AND PRESENTATIONS #8
Contemporary Indigenous Scene - Émilie Monnet Today’s Indigenous contemporary scene is prolific, surprising, and diverse. Increasingly interdisciplinary, it highlights multiple facets of Indigenous artists’ identities, while drawing on distinct cultural and spiritual knowledge, as well as colonial experience. Inspired by pop culture, technology and new practices, Indigenous artists offer unique perspectives on today’s world and bear witness to the place they hold in it. Envisioned by E milie Monnet, Artistic Director of Onishka Productions, Indigenous Contemporary Scene is a platform for the dissemination of performing arts and installations by Indigenous artists. It offers unique spaces for dialogue, exchange and collaboration between artists from different disciplines. By producing In- digenous Contemporary Scene, Onishka brings together artists from different nations, incites new collabora- tions and celebrates Indigenous artists’ talent and creativity.
Katelyn Clark Song of Sibyls is an intermedia work for organetto, processed sound, and video. This project has been devel- oped through an ongoing collaboration between musician Katelyn Clark and Australian visual artist Marlaina Read, since meeting in Iceland in 2013. In my presentation, I will discuss antiquity’s idea of the ‘sibyl’, an oracle who prophesizes the future, and the ways in which Clark/Read’s iteration of sibyl’s song uses a binary of evoking a distant past while imagining a future, including sound that manipulates fourteenth-century mu- sic, and images that explore environment and landscape, human-made structure, and rites of the living.
Jacques Poulin-Denis I will give a brief description of my trajectory, studies and certain projects that led my interdisciplinary prac- tice. Then I'll give an overview of the productions I've made with my company Grand Poney, especially inter- disciplinary works like DORS and Cible de Dieu, my first two works at the intersection of dance and theatre and Running Piece, my latest and most recent work, which is as much choreography as electromechanics. Finally, I will talk about the issues I face as an interdisciplinary artist, that is to say the chaos that ensues when several disciplinary axes must develop simultaneously within a single mind.
Mykalle Bielinski E m i l i e M o n n e t and Mykalle Bielinski will perform two pieces from MYTHE, a show for six singers and ac- tresses, written and composed by Mykalle Bielinski, which will be presented at OFFTA 2018. The Dreamtime psalmody, somewhere between spoken work and theatre, takes inspiration from liturgy, the exploratory po- etry of Claude Gavreau and the myth of Icarus. It induces a meditative trance where religious mantra be- comes a transcendent act, a rite of passage between attachment to ego and the acceptance of death. The Last Ritual, on the other hand, sets the Tibetan Book of the Dead to music while bringing to mind gospel and magic incantations.
16 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL SATURDAY MAY 19
8:00 STUDENT INTERARTS CONCERT
Alexis Langevin-Té trault Interférences (String Network) Jullian Hoff & Charlotte Layec Verklärter Rohr Felix Del Tredici & Hannah Walter TRACES Myriam Boucher, Charlotte Layec Imaginary Landscape & Pierre Luc Lecours
Interférences (String Network) is an audiovisual performance that explores the possibilities of performing using real-time gestural interaction with a unique interface. Onstage, an audioreactive interplay of light is gradually unveiled. Alexis Langevin-Té trault builds a network of ropes with which he interacts so as to create a sonic universe situated at the intersection of industrial noise, electronica and acousmatic music. With the staging of embodiment and the dialectic relationship between human and machine, Interférences (String Net- work) presents an allegory of a globalised and interconnected modern in which individuals seek to draw meaning from experience and protect their liberty of action. A composer and musician coming from the post- rock, acousmatic and electronic scenes, Alexis Langevin-Té trault proposes a singular brutalist universe and breathes the dynamic of live performance into a genre that is rarely embodied performatively. This project was made possible through the support of the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec, Château Éphémère – Fabrique Sonore et numérique (France), Université de Montréal, du Social Sciences and Re- search Council of Canada, the Fonds de Recherche Science et Culture du Québec, the Exhibitronic Festival (France) and the Centre national de création musicale Césaré (France).
Verklärter Rohr or The Transfigured Tube is a 24-minute work for bass clarinet, electronic instruments and generative video. It is a journey around the clarinet, transformed by digital sound processing. The clarinetist interacts with the video in a musical atmosphere that is sometimes dream- like and vaporous, other times pointillistic and virtuosic. The various exchanges and dialogue between this musician - a sensitive and spon- taneous creature - and the logical and mathematical operators that control the digital instruments create this unique and contemporary work. The electronic instruments that have been developed propose fantastic ver- sions of the clarinet. The human instrumental playing is described by indirect acquisition and is in conversa- tion with the algorithmic interface of the machine in real time with the goal of creating multiple transfigura- tions of the instrument each time the piece is presented.
TRACES is a short fairy-tale that follows the song of the Megaptera Novaeangliae (Humpback Whale) swim- ming through an ocean of radiation. This piece explores the effect of outside influences on the trombone – causing it to feedback, rupture, and become unrecognizable. I was inspired and horrified by two images: sonic booms from underwater explosions that confuse whales (causing their brains to burst), and swirling pools of garbage mixing with tidal waves of radiation flowing out of Japan.
Imaginary Landscape is an audiovisual performance for bass clarinet, gramophone, synthesizer and video. In this project, composer Pierre-Luc Lecours is interested in the mixing of acoustic and electronic sounds, as well as in the aesthetic encounter of contemporary instrumental and electroacoustic music. Imaginary Land- scape uses a gramophone, which is used both to sample vinyl records and to produce percussive sounds with the aid of the metal horn. Through the video projected directly on the musicians and on different surfaces according to the place of performance, Myriam Boucher seeks to create new imaginary spaces in close rela- tion with music and musicians. Named as a tribute to John Cage's Imaginary Landscape series. 17 FORUM 2018 - SCHEDULE AND DETAIL SUNDAY MAY 20
Sunday May 20th
8:30 AM location TBA Soundwalk: New Hermitage 10:00 AM Workshop: Mapping Community Music Across Canada 10:45 AM Café Networking Discussion #6: COMMUNITY Ruth Howard (Jumblies Theatre) Émilie Monnet (Indigenous Contemporary Scene) Luke Nickel (Cluster Festival) 11:00 AM GN-M-100 Niilo Tarnanen (Korvat Auki) Christopher Willes (Public Recordings) Matthias Engler (Ensemble Adapter) Moderator: Gayle Young 11:50 AM Café Networking 12:10 PM Plenary Session 1:00 PM End of FORUM
8:30 SOUNDWALK: NEW HERMITAGE See Friday May 18th
10:00 WORKSHOP: MAPPING COMMUNITY MUSIC IN CANADA See Friday May 18th
11:00 DISCUSSION #6: COMMUNITY What are the strategies and benefits of inter-arts projects in creating greater connections with our audiences and communities? A discussion with artists and presenters deeply embedded and invested in community practice. Ruth Howard (Jumblies Theatre) Émilie Monnet (Indigenous Contemporary Scene) Luke Nickel (Cluster Festival) Niilo Tarnanen (Korvat Auki) Christopher Willes (Public Recordings) Matthias Engler (Ensemble Adapter) Moderator: Gayle Young
18 FORUM 2018 - BIOGRAPHIES
Biographies
ANDREW BALFOUR (MN) Of Cree descent, Winnipeg based composer Andrew Balfour is an innovative composer/conduc- tor/singer/sound designer with a large body of choral, instrumental, electro-acoustic and orchestral works. Andrew is also the founder and Artistic Director of the adventurous vocal group Camerata Nova, now in its 22nd year, that specializes in new works, arrangements and audacious inter-genre and interdisciplinary col- laborations.
SANDEEP BHAGWATI (QC) Sandeep Bhagwati is a a composer, researcher, poet, theatre maker, installation artist, and conductor, born in India, a citizen of Germany now living in Montréal, Canada. In his work, he likes to ask himself questions that he cannot answer, set himself tasks that stymie him, and to break with practices that no one thinks are broken. In order to further foster and enhance his ignorance, he founded, in 2006, a research-creation lab at Concordia University, the matralab, where he and his team work on computer-improvisation, interactive scores, invisible bodysuit scores and creative research into inter-traditional music and theater forms, but also on the theoretical-artistic exploration of comprovisational technique, inter-traditional aesthetics and world-conscious art practices such as political performance, environmental sound art or responsive creation.
MYKALLE BIELINSKI (QC) The Montreal-based artist Mykalle Bielinski is dedicated to singing, interpretation, music composition, po- etry and scenic writing. Her work consists of multidisciplinary and immersive performances (Gloria, Mythes intérieurs), where the voice leads the way to the sacred, intertwined with philosophy and technology. She holds a diploma in acting from UQAM and often collaborates with directors for theatre and dance as a per- former, a musician and a sound designer (Eugenio Barba, Mélanie Demers, E dith Patenaude). From ambient textures to bouncy trip-hop beats, her music is a spiritual experience, driven by her cathedral voice, her be- witching synths and her magnetic stage presence.
KIRAN BHUMBER/JP CARTER (BC) Kiran Bhumber is a media artist, composer, musician and educator based in Vancouver, Canada. She con- structs interactive installations and performance systems that allow performers and audiences to engage with themes relating to cultural memory, embodiment and nostalgia. She has performed and presented her works in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia including conferences and festivals such as MUTEK, The International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA), The Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, International Conference on Live Coding, and New Interfaces for Mu- sical Expression (NIME). Kiran holds an MA in Media Arts (2018) from the University of Michigan and a Bach- elor of Music degree in Secondary Music Education (2014) from the University of British Columbia. JP Carter is a Juno award-winning musician from Vancouver, Canada. Carter’s singular approach to the trum- pet and versatility as an improvisor and composer make him a vital contributor to the Vancouver music com- munity. JP incorporates a variety of techniques into his trumpet playing, utilizing and experimenting with acoustic (traditional, extended) and electronic (effected, amplified) methods to create a wide spectrum of sound. Currently a member of several Vancouver-based groups, including Destroyer, Fond of Tigers, Inhab- itants, Dan Mangan, the Tony Wilson 6tet, Handmade Blade (with Peggy Lee & Aram Bajakian), Aeroplane
19 FORUM 2018 - BIOGRAPHIES
Trio, Gordon Grdina’s Haram, Michael Blake’s Variety Hour, and the various New Orchestra Workshop en- sembles. Most recently, JP has been working on a solo amplified trumpet project. He released a self-produced document of this solo work in May 2017 entitled “Toy & Tool”. LINDA BOUCHARD (BC) Linda Bouchard is active as a composer, orchestrator, conductor, teacher and producer. Based in San Fran- cisco since 1997, Linda lived in New York city from 1979 to 1991 and was composer in residence at the National Arts Center Orchestra from 1992 to 1995. In 2005, Linda founded nexmap.org, and served as the artistic director until 2016. She was a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Music at UC Berkeley during the spring 2016. In the fall 2017, Linda was awarded the Hugh Davidson Commissioning Prize from Victoria Symphony Orchestra, which premiered, “Flocking for Orchestra” last month. She also received a “Composite, Explore and Create” Grant from the Canada Council (2017-2019).
MYRIAM BOUCHER (QC) Myriam Boucher is a video and sound artist based in Montreal (Canada). Her sensitive and polymorphic work concerns the intimate dialogue between music, sound and image, through visual music, immersive projects and audiovisual performance. Her work was won prizes in the 2015 and 2016 (first prize) JTTP awards, the LUFF 2017 (experimental short-movie award), the 2015 JIM Electroacoustic Compositions Competition and the Bourse Euterke 2015, and has been presented at many international events including Mutek (CA), Ig- loofest (CA) and Kontakte (DE). Boucher’s work departs from a free gesture and tends towards nature, passing from the material to the im- material. She explores the desire for freedom and questions our intrinsic relationship to life. After a bache- lor’s degree in sound composition at the Université de Montréal, she began her PhD in sound composition in the fall of 2017. Her research focuses on image/sound relationships applied within a contemporary musical context and of an electroacoustic writing.
LOUISE CAMPBELL (QC) Louise Campbell is a Montreal-based musician whose professional hats range from clarinettist to conductor, community arts facilitator to musicians’ health therapist. As a performer, improviser and composer, Louise seeks to interrogate and renew the ways in which we make music by creating new works with everyone, regardless of age, ability, level of prior experience, or training. Her specializations include improvisation and creation with untrained (aka ‘amateur’) musicians, improvised conducting, cross-disciplinary creation, com- missioned works, and public engagement. She has toured as a performer, guest artist, and lecturer of impro- vised and composed musics across Canada, the US, France, Germany, and Brazil.
GUILLAUME CAMPION (QC) Guillaume Campion is a composer and sound artist. Bringing music, speech and field recordings together, his works are at the crossroads of electroacoustic music and sonic documentary. He is the co-founder of Trames, a company dedicated to digital audio creation and the democratization of sound art.
JP CARTER (BC) JP Carter is a Juno award-winning musician from Vancouver, Canada. Carter’s singular approach to the trum- pet and versatility as an improvisor and composer make him a vital contributor to the Vancouver music com- munity. JP incorporates a variety of techniques into his trumpet playing, utilizing and experimenting with acoustic (traditional, extended) and electronic (effected, amplified) methods to create a wide spectrum of
20 FORUM 2018 - BIOGRAPHIES sound. Currently a member of several Vancouver-based groups, including Destroyer, Fond of Tigers, Inhab- itants, Dan Mangan, the Tony Wilson 6tet, Handmade Blade (with Peggy Lee & Aram Bajakian), Aeroplane Trio, Gordon Grdina’s Haram, Michael Blake’s Variety Hour, and the various New Orchestra Workshop en- sembles. Most recently, JP has been working on a solo amplified trumpet project. He released a self-produced document of this solo work in May 2017 entitled “Toy & Tool”.
KATELYN CLARK (QC) Musician Katelyn Clark performs historical repertoire and experimental music on early keyboard instru- ments. She has concertized internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, and has been an artist in resi- dence at the Banff Centre, NES in Iceland, Artscape on Toronto Island, and was a fellow at OMI in the USA. Katelyn studied harpsichord with Bob van Asperen (Conservatorium van Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and holds a doctorate in early music performance from McGill University (Montréal). Her artistic study and prac- tice have been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
GUILLAUME CÔTÉ (QC) Influenced by his surroundings, the electroacoustic composer Guillaume Côté explores the territorial, lin- guistic and social dynamics in Quebec through a mix of concrete, synthetic and vocal materials. His eclectic artistic research resides not only on a meeting with the other through musical discourse that aims to be narrative or informative, but also on the abstraction brought on through modular systems. Co-founder of the digital audio creation business Trames, he collaborates with several artists such as Samuel Bobony (Black Givre), Guillaume Campion (Archipel), Lucie Leroux (Empreintes), Dave Gagnon (L'Autre) and Alexis Lange- vin-Tétrault (Falaises).
FELIX DEL TREDICI (QC) The New York Times has described Felix Del Tredici as an “extraordinarily versatile trombonist” whose per- formances are “disturbing yet fascinating” and “hair-raisingly virtuosic”. As a specialist in contemporary mu- sic, he has worked with Ensemble Signal, Musikfabrik, Fonema Consort, No Hay Banda, Ensemble E chappé, Klangforum Wien, Kollektiv Totem, Cygnus Ensemble, The Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, and the Lucerne Festival Academy.
GABRIEL DHARMOO (QC) Gabriel Dharmoo’s musical practice encompasses composition, vocal performance and research. His works have been performed in Canada, the U.S.A, Europe, Australia, Singapore and South Africa. He was awarded multiple awards including the Canada Council for the Arts Jules Léger Prize (2017), the MusCan Student Composer Competition (2017), the SOCAN Jan V. Matejcek Award (2016) and the Fernand-Lindsay Prix d’Eu- rope composition prize (2011). His performative solo Imaginary Anthropologies was awarded at the Am- sterdam Fringe Festival (2015) and the SummerWorks Performance Festival (2016). He is currently enrolled in Concordia University’s PhD “Individualized Program” with Sandeep Bhagwati (Music), Noah Drew (Thea- tre) and David Howes (Anthropology of the Senses).
MATTHIAS ENGLER (GERMANY) Matthias Engler studied classical percussion at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In 2005/2006 he was a fellow of the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt – focusing on contemporary chamber music repertoire. Together with harpist Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir he founded the Ensemble Adapter in Berlin in 2004. He has been working as percussionist and artistic manager for the group ever since. As a freelance
21 FORUM 2018 - BIOGRAPHIES percussionist he is regularly working with various ensembles for contemporary music throughout Germany: Ensemble Modern, MusikFabrik and others. He has worked with numerous important composers and con- ductors of our time: e.g. Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann, Maurizio Kagel, Steve Reich and he has per- formed at the most renowned festivals for contemporary music throughout Europe.
GOLDJIAN (QC) Goldjian is a transdisciplinary artist interested in relational practices between human beings, ecologies and technologies. Their work creates intimate spaces dedicated to mutual learning and slowing processes. Goldjian embraces media arts, land art, installation and video dance and facilitate collaborative, collective and restorative practices. They travels a constellation of feminist, healing decolonial hacking practices, which leads them to roam the Earth, even though many of their emotional ties are located in Tio’tia:ke colonially known as Montreal. Goldjian practices reliance, to oneself, to spaces, to other human beings and non-humans, and question the conditions needed to activate this quality of presence.
JULLIAN HOFF (QC) My creative territories are divided among fixed media works and multimedia comprovisations. I find my inspiration in themes such as lyric abstraction, surrealism, the human’s place facing technology, techno-cul- ture and posthumanism. My artistic journey has led me across very varied musical fields (popular music, written and improvised music), which always allowed me to broaden my perspective on the infinite musical universe while underlining more clearly my own signature and personal practice. Initially self- taught, I sub- sequently benefitted from numerous courses (private schools, Conservatoire, University). Since 2011, I have concentrated on mixed works with video and generative and algorithmic systems. These allow me to explore the human-machine dialogue and while I start from written sources, I like to leave space for spontaneity by leaving space for comprovisation and by developing reactive and/or generative digital systems. I also work under various pseudonyms on different pop projects and on interactive music for video games.
RUTH HOWARD/JUMBLIES THEATRE (ON) Ruth Howard is the founding Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre, a Toronto-based interdisciplinary com- pany that makes art with, for and about people and places, and uncovers neglected and hidden stories. Ruth and Jumblies have created a series of multi-year residencies resulting in large-scale performances and lasting legacies, two national touring projects (Train of Thought and Four Lands), and the Touching Ground Festival of new works. Many of these projects included collaborations with Canadian composers and contemporary music organizations. 2018 projects include Four Lands at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, and Round the Ta- ble: a musical meal with 7 original rounds.
MARCELLE HUDON (QC) Marcelle Hudon is a puppeteer. She is interested in the symbolic power of the manipulator and the object. Fascinated with shadow theater and live video, she has worked for more than thirty years with artists in new music, writing, theater, dance and visual arts to compose her performances and installations. In 2011, she illustrated the Babel Orchestra, an opera of spoken voices by Jean Jacques Lemêtre in the large dôme of the SAT in Montreal. Recently, with Maxime Rioux, she created the installation Le pavillon des Immortels heureux, an orchestra of marionnettes animated by inaudible sound frequencies. She is currently working on a project with sound poet Gilles Arteau, entitled Le carrougeois.
22 FORUM 2018 - BIOGRAPHIES
ONA KAMU (FINLAND) Ona Kamu has several titles: singer, musician, composer, actor, performance artist, artistic director of Ona Kamu Collective, music producer and head of her own record label Pakara Records. She has created an un- compromising and intriguing career in Finnish art field. Ona is the epitome of the uncategorised. She is chal- lenging the boundaries of what can be done and what is appropriate. Just like her art, her work is ambitious, relentless and follows her own paths. Art relates everywhere. All the time. Even though we could not be aware of it.
ALEXIS LANGEVIN-TÉTRAULT (QC) Alexis Langevin-Tétrault is a composer and audiovisual performance artist. He has participated in the cre- ation of a number of electroacoustic and electronic music projects including QUADr, Falaises, DATANOISE, BetaFeed, Alexeï Kawolski and Recepteurz. His current works are characterized by physi- cal performance, staging, intense use of digital audio technology, exploration of sonic timbre as well as con- ceptual and social considerations. His works have been presented in a number of international events, in- cluding ISEA (CA), Intonal (SWE), MUTEK Montreal (CA), MUTEK Barcelona (ESP), BIAN-El- ektra (CA), Akousma (CA), Transient (FR), Visions of the future (USA), Mois Multi (CAN), Sines & Squares (UK), Matera Intermedia Festival (IT), Espace du son (BE) and TIES (CAN). His work has won prizes from the Destellos Foundation, (AR), the SOCAN Foundation(CA), Musiques et Recherches (BE), the Semaine Internationale de la Musique Électroacoustique (FR) as well as the Exhibitronic Festival (FR).
CHARLOTTE LAYEC (QC) Clarinetist Charlotte Layec received her musical training in France and then in Montreal. A versatile artist, she moves in different musical aesthetics, exploring classical music and contemporary music by way of elec- troacoustic music and free improvisation (Ensemble ILE A). Her qualities as a performer allowed her to per- form with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) under the direction of Kent Nagano in August 2016, and her interest in creative activities bring her to collaborate on multiple electroacoustic works with audiovisual components, such as Pierre-Luc Scott’s Footprints for bass clarinet and electroacoustics (created at the Ul- trasons Festival 2016), Pierre-Luc Lecours’ Imaginary Landscape for bass clarinet, gramophone and synthe- sizer (created at MUTEK Festival 2017) and Jullian Hoff’s Verklärter Rohr for bass clarinet, algorithms in real time, tape and generative video (presented at TIES 2017).
PIERRE-LUC LECOURS (QC) Pierre-Luc Lecours is a composer and sound artist based in Montreal. His musical practice covers several mediums and aesthetics. His music is characterized by a search for emotional expressiveness in works ex- ploring the hybridization of acoustic and digital sources, drawing as much on the currents of contemporary music, instrumental and electroacoustic as on experimental electronic styles. He is part of the QUADr and ILEA projects. His works were honored by Exhibitronic 2017, the Composition Contest of the 2014 Destellos Foundation, the SOCAN 2014 Young Composers Contest, and the CEC 2014-2017 Times play contest and were presented at several international events including MUTEK (CA), Elektra ( CA), BIAN (CA), Akousma (CA), Currents (US), Muslab (MEX), Resonances Électriques (FR) and Hot docs (CA).
MEGUMI MASAKI (MN) Pianist Megumi Masaki’s innovation and breadth of her artistic activity, dynamic temperament and “riveting and mind-expanding” performances have earned her a reputation as a leading interpreter of contemporary music. She specializes in exploring interactive possibilities of sound, image, text and movement in the crea- tion and performance of piano+computer+multimedia works. She frequently collaborates with composers, 23 FORUM 2018 - BIOGRAPHIES visual artists, writers and choreographers on interdisciplinary projects involving technologies to enhance the dynamic interaction between creator and performer. So far, 33 new works have been created for Megumi and she has premiered over 80 works worldwide. Megumi is Professor of piano and director of the New Music Ensemble and New Music Festival at Brandon University Canada. She is also a member of the interdis- ciplinary Noiseborder Ensemble and Slingshot-Kidõ USA, on faculty at the Casalmaggiore Festival Italy and Chetham’s International Summer School and Festival in Manchester UK.
ELKE MOLTRECHT (GERMANY) Elke Moltrecht is a musicologist, curator and initiator of international and interdisciplinary festivals and an- nual programs that link forms of music through uncommon thematic associations. Cofounder of the Heinrich Schütz House in Bad Köstritz, and a member of the founding team of the Bosehaus/Bach-Museum Leipzig. She directs the music department at Podewil Center for Contemporary Arts, and is director of the Ballhaus Naunystraße in Berlin, and Musik 21 Niedersachsen in Hanover. She publishes journal articles about exper- imental and contemporary music and has been a member of noted national and international juries and boards. She is currently the Executive Director of the Academy of the Arts of the World in Köln. ÉMILIE MONNET (QC) Intergrating theatre, performance art and technology, E milie Monnet’s artistic practice explores themes of identity, memory, co-existence and transformation. Her creations draw on the symbolic of dreams and my- thology—personal and collective—to tell stories that question today’s world. In 2016, E milie founded Indig- enous Contemporary Scene (ICS), a critical and artistic manifestation of live-arts by indigenous artists. A small version of ICS was organized in Buenos Aires in March 2017 and brought together indigenous artists from Quebec and Argentina. E milie’s heritage is Anishnaabe and French, and she lives in Montreal. Her artis- tic engagement is inspired by years of social activism with indigenous organizations in Canada and Latin America as well as community art projects with incarcerated women and Aboriginal youth.
NEW HERMITAGE (NS) A collection of compositions, improvisations, and recorded sound, New Hermitage aims to connect with the beauty of the environmental timbres that surround us. It is an expression of tenderness, joy, sorrow, and mindfulness; it is a plea to slow down and gather awareness of space and time. New Hermitage is a collection Halifax improvisers who individually have been nominated for multiple ECMA and Juno awards and can list Jerry Granelli, the Upstream Orchestra, Gypsophilia, and Symphony Nova Scotia on their resumes. Led by Andrew MacKelvie (woodwinds), and featuring Ellen Gibling (harp), Ross Burns (guitar), and India Gailey (cello).
LUKE NICKEL (MN) Luke Nickel is an award-winning Manitoban artist and researcher currently residing in Bristol, UK. His work investigates notions of memory, collaboration and musical borrowing. He has worked with ensembles such as EXAUDI, the Bozzini Quartet, Architek Percussion, and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and has collabo- rated with galleries and organizations such as the Panoply Performance Laboratory (Brooklyn, NYC), G39 (Cardiff, UK), and Arnolfini (Bristol, UK). Luke is also an active curator, and currently co-directs the Cluster: New Music + Integrated Arts Festival in Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Cluster Festival is currently entering its ninth year, and has featured over 100 artists from across the world in innovative forms of artistic presentation.
24 FORUM 2018 - BIOGRAPHIES
L’ORCHESTRE D’HOMMES-ORCHESTRES (QC) L’orchestre d’hommes-orchestres (L’ODHO) is a collective of undisciplined artist-musicians founded in Québec City in 2002. Unclassifiable, on the boundaries of several artistic disciplines, the ODHO defines itself as a permanent work in progress in the living arts. It has produced more than a dozen productions for the stage or public space, including Joue à Tom Waits, Cabaret brise-jour, Tintamarre caravane and Les Palais. Their productions have been presented in more than 80 cities across more than twenty European, American and Australasian countries. The ODHO received the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize in 2013 and the City of Québec Prize in 2015.
CLÉO PALACIO-QUINTIN (QC) Constantly seeking new means of expression and eager to create, the flutist-improviser-composer Cléo Pala- cio-Quintin (1971) takes part in many premieres as well as improvisational multidisciplinary performances, and composes instrumental and electro-acoustic music for various ensembles and media works. Since 1999, she is developing the hyper-flutes. Interfaced to a computer by means of electronic sensors, these enhanced flutes enables her to compose novel interactive music and control live video processing. She is the first women to own a Doctorate in Electro-Acoustic Composition from the Université de Montréal (2012) and is a collaborator of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT).
JERRY PERGOLESI (ON) Jerry Pergolesi is the founding artistic director and percussionist for Contact Contemporary Music (Contact, a.k.a ContaQt) in Toronto and a founding member of the Queer Percussion Research Group. Jerry’s artistic practice and research considers the politics of aesthetics and genre in 20th and 21st Century music, exploring the intersection of queer and new music scenes; popular and art music scenes; shared engagement; creative arts education, and cooperative music creation processes specifically with non- musicians. Jerry created and co-curates Intersection, an annual multi-genre, barrier-free, accessible festival of experimental music, and Music From Scratch, a music creation workshop for excluded youth.
JACQUES POULIN-DENIS (QC) Jacques Poulin-Denis is a composer, choreographer, director and performer. Undertaking projects that blur the boundaries between dance, music and theater, he creates humanistic and uncanny works that are both sensorial and thought provoking. To gently knock the spectator off center, he puts forth the strength within the vulnerability of the characters he brings to life. Counting over twelve different productions, Jacques Pou- lin-Denis’ work has been seen in over twenty cities across Canada, as well as in the United States, Europe and Asia. He is an artist in residence of l’Agora de la danse in Montreal, and was awarded a two-month residency in Berlin during the Tanz Im August Festival, as well as several choreographic research periods in Montreal, Victoria, Vancouver, Bassano and Seoul.
EVELIN RAMÓN (QC) Originally from Cuba, Evelin Ramón obtained a Masters in Composition at the Université de Montréal, stud- ying with Ana Sokolovic, and is continuing her doctoral studies there under the direction of Pierre Michaud. She also studied in Havana with the Cuban composers Juan Piñera and Louis Aguirre. Her works have been performed in Canada, Spain, Germany, Venezuela, France, Mexico, Denmark, Greenland, Chili, the United States and Cuba. Her professional work includes performance, improvisation, composition and teaching.
25 FORUM 2018 - BIOGRAPHIES
WILLIAM ROBINSON (NS) William Robinson lives and works in New Brunswick NJ and Halifax NS. As a multidisciplinary artist, Robin- son creates installations that combine sculpture, sound, video, performance, musical composition and printed matter. The work he creates is situational, frequently responding to specific buildings, sites and ob- jects. Influenced and directed by his interest in sound, performance art, musicology, architecture and pho- tography, Robinson engages collaborative and poetic processes that divulge the unexpected logic, design and history of specific sites and locations. These sites are usually close to home. Robinson is currently in the MFA program at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts.
LOU SHEPPARD (NS) Lou Sheppard is Canadian artist working in video, audio and installation practices. Of settler ancestry, Shep- pard was raised on unceded Mi’Kmaq territory, and currently lives in K’jiputuk (Halifax.) Sheppard was a participant in the first Antarctic Biennale, the Antarctic Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale, and was selected for the 2017 Emerging Atlantic Artist Award. In 2018 Sheppard was an artist in residence at the Cité des Arts in Paris, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, and will be an artist in residence at the Khyber in Nova Scotia and the Doris McCarthy Artist Residency Program in Toronto.
PATRICK SAINT-DENIS (QC) Patrick Saint-Denis is a composer working mainly in sound art and interactive scenography. His works range from video installation to large scale robotized machinery. He performs regularly in Montreal and abroad either in concert, exhibition or dance format. He is a course lecturer on audiovisual composition and physical computing at University of Montreal since 2010.
ISABELLA STEFANESCU/INTER ARTS MATRIX (ON) Isabella Stefanescu is an interdisciplinary artist, director, and producer based in Kitchener-Waterloo, On- tario. Originally from Romania, Stefanescu immigrated to Canada and continued her education in mathemat- ics and fine arts at the University of Waterloo. In collaboration with machine designer Klaus Engel, Isabella Stefanescu created the Euphonopen, an interface for the live performance of drawing. The Euphonopen maps the hand movements of the person who draws to sound, and has been used to create several interdiscipli- nary/new music performances, a chamber opera, and installations with user created content. Stefanescu is a recipient of the Ontario Arts Council K.M. Hunter Artist Award for interdisciplinary art. Currently she is the artistic director of Inter Arts Matrix, an organization dedicated to the production of interdisciplinary works of art.
ROOZBEH TABANDEH (QC) Roozbeh Tabandeh is an Iranian musician, born in Shiraz and living in Montreal since 2015. Having a Master’s degree in architecture, he is also known as a composer, conductor as well as a violinist and Iranian Santur player. He studied music composition at Concordia University under the supervision of Sandeep Bhagwati and Georges Dimitrov. Before moving to Canada, he studied music composition and conducting with some of the most well-known Iranian musicians. His compositions are performed and recorded by several ensembles around the globe including the Quatuor Bozzini in Montreal, Ensemble Arkea under the baton of Dina Gilbert, Orchestre Symphonique de l’Isle with Cristian Gort as the conductor and Iran string orchestra under the direction of Manuchehr Sahbai etc.
26 FORUM 2018 - BIOGRAPHIES
NIILO TARNANEN (FINLAND) Niilo Tarnanen (b.1987) is a Finnish composer, music theory teacher, bassoonist, and the chairperson of the young composers’ association Korvat auki. His manifold works, ranging from Christmas carols to soundscape to a political speech for a solo tuba, are inspired by the time experienced by an animal called human. Tarnanen majored in composition at Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki with professor Veli- Matti Puumala and lecturer Lauri Kilpiö and received his MMus degree in 2015. His recent focuses include games and flow charts as form, harmony inspired by psychoacoustics and phonetics, and everyday sounds. LAN TUNG (BC) Erhu performer, composer, improviser, vocalist, and producer, Lan is the artistic director of Sound of Dragon Music Festival, Orchid Ensemble, and Proliferasian, and performs with numerous cross- cultural projects in New Music and World Music. Originally from Taiwan, her works often encompass unexpected combinations of elements from different genres. Lan has studied graphic score with Barry Guy, improvisation with Mary Oliver, Hindustani music with Kala Ramnath, and Uyghur music with Abdukerim Osman. She was a solo- ist/composer with Orchestre Metropolitain, Vancouver Symphony, Turning Point Ensemble, Symphony Nova Scotia, Upstream Ensemble, Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, Atlas Ensemble (Amsterdam & Hel- sinki), and Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra (Taipei).
CHRISTOPHER WILLES (ON) Christopher Willes is a Toronto based artist working in the intersections of music, performance, and the vis- ual arts. His projects include concert works, exhibitions, dance and theatre collaborations, publications, and curatorial activities. He is an associate artist with the Toronto collective ‘Public Recordings’, and regularly collaborates with dance artists as a sound-maker and dramaturg. Christopher received an MFA in mu- sic/sound from Bard College (NY, USA), studied music at the University of Toronto, and Dance Dramaturgy at Dancemakers (Toronto). In 2016 he was a recipient of a Chalmer Arts Fellowship, and was a Macdowell Colony Fellow (NH, USA).
GAYLE YOUNG (ON) Gayle Young’s music, instruments, and sound installations include electronic and orchestral instruments, and industrial materials, and found objects such as stone and wood. In the late 1970s she developed notational systems and designed musical instruments to facilitate explorations in unusual tunings, and since 1993 has used multiple lengths of tuned tubing in outdoor sound installations. She continues to combine her interests in tuning and soundscape by recording environmental noise (highways, railways, rivers, and ocean shore- lines) through tuned tubing. She has worked with Pauline Oliveros, R. Murray Schafer, Michael Snow, James Tenney, Don Wherry of the Newfoundland Sound Symposium, and many other prominent names in contem- porary new music.
27